Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government, in partnership with COSLA, has now published Scotland’s Digital Health and Care Strategy which sets out a clear national direction for digital health and care delivery. We will now be working across the Scottish Government, NHS Scotland and Local Government to ensure that the capability required to successfully delivery on the strategy is in place, and will consider any requirement for organisational change as part of that process.

As set out in my answer to S5W-14011 on 1 February 2018, the Scottish Government is undertaking a Proof of Concept with the West of Scotland NHS Boards to examine how a Health and Social Care Services Portal may be developed to help citizens in the management of their health and wellbeing. Scotland's Digital Health and Care Strategy published on 25 April 2018 further confirms that to support excellent care at point of contact we will deliver the digital capability for citizens to access and update information about their health and wellbeing, including their records and from personal monitoring, and to interact with services. This will build on Proof of Concept work and through developments such as NHS Inform.

A multi-disciplinary working group convened by Scottish Government is currently testing a Quality Assurance Framework for Mobile Health apps for Health and Care Professionals in Scotland. The intention of the Framework is to provide quality and risk assessment for apps in relation to technology, information governance, use of high quality up to date evidence, sustainability and impact evaluation.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

Published information on Lyme disease for medical practitioners can be found at: http://www.nes.scot.nhs.uk/education-and-training/by-theme-initiative/public-health/health-protection/gastrointestinal-infection-and-zoonoses/lyme-disease.aspx

and for the public at:

https://www.nhsinform.scot/bugs-and-germs

I have asked Caroline Lamb, Chief Executive Officer of NHS Education for Scotland, to respond. Her response is as follows:

NHS Education for Scotland (NES) has a key role in co-ordinating recruitment to and overseeing the quality of postgraduate Medical training for both GPs and hospital specialists. The training curricula are written by Medical Royal Colleges and approved by the General Medical Council – who will consider advice from a wide range of stakeholders – including NES. These curricula are subject to regular review and updating, and the training is delivered by territorial NHS Boards in clinical placement settings, also approved by the GMC.

Beyond that quality management role, NES is involved in delivering and commissioning on-going continuous professional development in training and education in a number of areas for a range of staff groups.All qualified healthcare practitioners have a professional obligation to undertake continuous professional development to meet identified learning and professional development needs, and the Medical Royal Colleges and NHS Education for Scotland provide a selection of courses and learning resources to support their further development.

ME/CFS is one of many health conditions that involves both physical and psychological aspects. There is good evidence that using a ‘bio psychosocial’ model to both understand and treat all health conditions, irrespective of cause, is highly beneficial in both improving psychological and physical health outcomes and enabling health professionals to deliver holistic care without perpetuating a mind/body dualism. To that end, NES has been involved with stakeholders to develop a range of interventions for staff working with children and adults with a range of health conditions including heart disease, cancer, diabetes, arthritis and ME/CFS.

This is an operational matter for Police Scotland.

The Scottish Government is committed to working with sport scotland and Scottish Golf to widen participation and to promote golf to young people across Scotland. That is why we are supporting major events such as the Solheim Cup in 2019 which will provide opportunities for a new generation of young people and, in particular, girls to take up golf and get involved in sport more generally.

sport scotland’s continued investment of Scottish Golf supports a wide range of activity that encourages and supports young people to participate in golf, including both club and coach development. Investment also includes specific conditions to expand reach to the inactive and underrepresented in golf, including women and girls, as well as to tackle inequality and discrimination.

The Government has no plans to review drainage charges. All businesses, including nursery schools, are required to pay water, sewerage and drainage charges where they are connected to public services. Where a nursery school is a charity, it can seek exemption or a reduction in charges where its income is less than £300,000 per year.

The current licence fee is £2,101 (following 1 April RPI increase). The fee is on a cost recovery basis which covers cost of licence determination and any required compliance visits.

FreeStyle Libre flash glucose monitoring sensors were added to the Scottish Drug Tariff in November 2017. It is for NHS Boards to consider their inclusion on local prescribing formularies. These decisions will be informed by evidence of clinical and cost effectiveness, local needs, pressures and resources including funding. In 2018-19, frontline NHS Boards are receiving additional funding of £354 million - a 3.7% increase.

Information on the number of Freestyle Libre devices is not held centrally.

This SEPA study was published as evidence in the Public Petitions Committee Report of case PE1522.  http://www.parliament.scot/GettingInvolved/Petitions/PE01522